Watching and Waiting
by Dragonrider2203
Summary: Uther was suspicious of the boy from the start". "Arthur was suspicious of the boy from the start". Now a two-shot.
1. Uther

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Merlin, although an Arthur to call my own would be nice.**

Uther was suspicious of the boy from the start.

When the witch threw the knife, the boy seemed to move a little too fast; but Uther shook it off as his imagination.

Then there was the business with the snakes suddenly appearing from the shield, and the time where his son, his ward and the boy disappeared; and when they returned the mysterious illness had disappeared.

Uther dismissed these, along with what happened with the Griffin and numerous other incidents, having no proof.

But then, during the fiasco with Tristan rising from the dead, Uther got the proof he needed.

He wasn't as ignorant of magic as people thought; he remembered many things he had been taught when he was but a child.

And so, when the boy appeared with a sword that could slay the dead, Uther knew he had a sorcerer in his household.

But... Uther had also seen the changes in his son since the boy had arrived; had seen Arthur becoming a better man.

His son had even begun challenging his orders, following his own morals; something Uther had been hoping for, and trying to provoke, for many years.

So Uther kept silent, watching the boy silently as he worked (and deflated his son's ego), waiting for any sign of trouble.

He didn't think the boy was evil, especially after the events surrounding Arthur's bite from the Questing Beast.

Uther knew the price of giving life, and was surprised (and slightly afraid) when the boy returned with Gaius, soaking wet and injured but very much alive.

So Uther resolved to wait until the magic finally corrupted the boy: Merlin.

**So, I was watching the first series of Merlin back-to-back today and, while watching Excalibur I thought Uther must have been a bit suspicious. After all Pellinore's sword went right through the zombie without hurting it at all, in pretty much the same place, and yet it bursts into flames when Excalibur touches it. And Uther can't be that stupid; he must have had some education in magic while he was growing up. So this was born.**

**Please read & review; they make up for the bucket load of work I have to do at the moment. **


	2. Arthur

**Someone, I can't remember who, requested another chapter of this fic. I'm sorry it took this long but I've been busy. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: The BBC owns Merlin, and I don't have enough money to buy it off them.**

Arthur was suspicious of the boy from the start.

He had been trained since he was old enough to hold a sword and had, therefore, developed an almost unconscious awareness of where he placed his feet.

So it was strange that he walked into even one object whilst swinging his mace at the boy, let alone several times in a row!

But he dismissed this as coincidence, only pausing to say "There's something about you Merlin", by which he really meant "I've got my eye on you".

Arthur found it harder and harder to dismiss the events of the next couple of weeks as coincidence.

Arthur knew for certain when, after he and his knights were decimated by the Griffin, he woke to someone shouting strange words and opened his eyes to see Merlin standing over him, blue light swirling around his hand and eyes glowing golden.

He thought it was just a hallucination, brought on by the bump on the head, but as he lay awake that night everything just seemed to click into place.

How the snakes on Valiant's shield came to life not long after he spotted Merlin, out of the corner of his eye, skidding to a halt at the entrance of the arena.

How an impossible wind suddenly blew through the tunnels, picking up the flame of his torch and swirling it around the monster.

How a bright blue ball of light helped him out of the cave; an orb which strangely reminded him of someone, someone who was supposedly dying at that moment.

And how Lancelot, with naught but a fragile wooden lance, slew the Griffin when Arthur's own steel sword had shattered into a million pieces.

As the prince lay awake that night, he knew he should turn Merlin in to his father, but something made him hold back.

So he watched his manservant, waiting for one wrong move that would prove Uther right, trying his hardest to treat Merlin as normal.

Days, weeks, months passed, but it never happened.

Arthur began to question what his father had taught him; Merlin didn't seem to be evil, in fact he seemed to just keep saving the prince's life without publically revealing himself.

So if Uther was wrong about magic, Arthur thought, what else was he wrong about?

**Please Read and Review!**


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